Design Considerations for Sparkle

Sparkle Business Cards are a unique product that requires unique file setup. The following recommendations are in regards to designing for the Sparkle stock only (please read the considerations for any other stock you have selected for the back side).

Fine Detail

We recommend large, bold designs that are very simple and have few fine details. Fine detail and light color choices can easily be lost in the sparkly stock. We recommend at least 2pt line thickness; however, the thicker the better on this stock. Font is recommended at a minimum 18pt to ensure it is readable.

Vector Files

Your design must be provided in vector format as we do not accept pixel-based images or graphics (including photos) for this product. They can be submitted in Pantone (preferred) or CMYK. The closest match to your color will be made by our production team. We do not currently produce this product in combination with other print techniques like foil, embossing or letterpress.

Safety Margin and Shifting

When creating your design, any important content (text and graphics) should be placed away from the edge (or trim line) to avoid being trimmed due to the unavoidable shifts that may occur during the production process.

We recommend a safety margin of 0.25 inches away from the trim line for this product - that is 0.375" from the bleed. This is a larger safety margin than most standard 1-ply cards, and helps account for the larger shift known to this product. If your files do not meet this guideline you will be sent a warning for “text close to edges,” or in some cases you may receive a File Error. Download the business card template for the larger safety marginhere.

We take all necessary precautions to avoid as much shifting as possible, however this risk is higher with duplex and triplex cards because of the additional mounting process - shifts of of 0.0625" to 0.125" can occur. The further your artwork is away from the trim edge of the card, the less noticeable any shift will be. If you are concerned about possible shifts, we recommend changing to a single layered card to reduce this risk.